Keep Dreaming
by daughterofmusic
Summary: That's impossible. Edward Cullen doesn't date. What do the other girls in Forks think when Edward suddenly decides to start dating: Bella? What about their wasted efforts on him? R&R!


**Keep Dreaming**

**(prince charming's on his way)**

**_[A/N: This is just a little story I dreamed up... I thought, what on earth would other girls feel like when Bella arrives at school and Edward's completely entranced? They would have been trying for so long to get his attention, just a little, but for their own safety he would have ignored them. What do the other girls think when Bella shows up and all their effort is gone to waste, because he suddenly decides to date - only her? So, this story was born. Enjoy and give me feedback! Thanks!_**

**_Daughter of Music_**

**_p.s. The song she listens to is "Far Away" by Nickelback._**

**_p.p.s. I do not own Twilight or any of the characters in it; however I DO own Whitney Hancock and her friend Erin. They are figures from my very own imagination and I am very proud of them. :)_**

"That's impossible," Erin said. "Edward Cullen doesn't date."

"See for yourself," Lauren said, grinning wickedly. "They sat together at lunch yesterday, and now they go everywhere together. I'm telling you they're a pair." Lauren wasn't necessarily a pretty girl. She had a bit of a snobby, waspy look about her – and it fit. She was the school informant. She knew who was going out with who, how and why people broke up, and about the new buzz at Forks High – Bella Swan – she had all the supposed 'inside' information. Lauren reminded me of people in those old movies: the old town gossips who sit in sewing groups and knit and start rumors circulating about everyone.

_That was mean,_ I chastised myself. _But it's true._ After all, Lauren certainly didn't spare anyone anything.

I got up and started walking away from the table, where my group of friends had been eating ice cream in front of a cozy little ice cream parlor. "Whitney, where are you going?" Erin called after me. "Wait up!"

"I'm headed home," I said. "I've got a headache. I'm just going to go and sleep it off. See you girls later." My stomach clenched as I walked briskly away from the group, anxious to be anywhere but around them. I got as far as a block away from my house before tears welled up in my eyes.

Edward Cullen. He and his family had come to Forks about two years ago. Every girl on campus – including myself – had been drawn in, captivated by his soft voice, his incredibly good looks, and his polite manners. He was every girl's dream come true.

It was pathetic.

Not long after he came, and not surprisingly, he got invited to a school dance. "Sorry," he had told the poor girl. "I don't date." Whenever he got asked out, the reply was the same. "Sorry. I don't date." One by one, every girl had given up on him. They went on with their lives, found other people to date. Happily ever after. The girls sneered at the Cullen family – "They think they're too good for us" – and the boys were just glad that the girls were over their fantasies of Edward.

Poor, pitiful me. I wasn't.

While the other girls oohed and aahed over him, I hung back. They were infatuated and openly flirtatious. I pretended not to care. I tried to see it from his point of view: a hundred or so girls always whispering about him must get really annoying. He'd get sick of it; he would want a different kind of girl. Shy, modest, likable – the type I saw myself as. I wasn't outgoing by any means – I never had been. It wasn't me. So I hung back, waiting by the sidelines until every girl had her heart turned down by the enticingly perfect Edward Cullen. When they had all moved on, I held on to a slender glimmer of hope that Edward would want the only girl who wasn't diving after him with a flirty, turn-you-on smile. Maybe he'd want me because I was the only one who was politely, detachedly interested in him.

Oh, I was never _rude_ to him – I said hello to him in Calculus, I smiled at him in the halls. But I was careful never to seem like the other girls. I wanted to stand out from the crowd of swooning idiots. I wanted him to look at me and think, _Whitney Hancock. She's so nice – cute enough, and smart too. Maybe she's the one to date. _Hah. Fat chance.

I was truly crazy about Edward. I signed my name as "Whitney Cullen" or "Mrs. Edward Cullen" in my diary. I watched his facial expressions whenever I talked to him, trying to decide if he was interested at all in the shy little girl in math class.

But he wasn't. I'd smile at him in the halls and he would stare straight ahead, as if I was invisible. He never talked to me unless it was to answer a greeting or a question. He was polite, but not friendly – all in all, he basically ignored the fact that I existed.

I'm sure he never did it intentionally. It's just that I'm not one to stand out in a crowd.

So, like all the other girls before me, I finally realized that to him, I was nobody special. I was just another speck in the universe. And, like the others (though much later than the rest) my heart ultimately broke. I cried over it, and it hurt, but finally I learned to hold it inside. It was a sore wound, but it wasn't bleeding.

Now this.

I sat on my bed and hugged my pillow to my chest, pain twisting my stomach. Bella Swan – a plain, quiet girl, nothing spectacular – and yet Edward had chosen her, of all people, to date. It literally made me feel sick. She just waltzed in and instantly Edward was hers, while I – I, who had for the past two years been so vigilant, so careful not to be too overbearing, so that he would learn to like me for who I was – I was shoved out of the way. All my best effort for him had gone to waste.

I plugged my radio in and turned it onto my favorite station. I needed some music to distract me. The words didn't register in my mind for a few moments, because I was so unsettled, but then I realized what song it was.

_I love you  
I have loved you all along  
And I miss you  
Been far away for far too long  
I keep dreaming you'll be with me  
and you'll never go  
Stop breathing if  
I don't see you anymore..._

Tears fell on my cheeks and I let the hurt that I had held in for so long spill out in aching sobs.

**[More to come! Reviews!!**


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